我从一个谁也无权要求告诉它这个故事
    我，或任何其他。我可能影响信用的诱惑
    一个老年份后开始为它的叙述者，
    和我自己的怀疑怀疑在接下来的日子里
    为平衡的离奇故事。
    当我欢乐的主人发现，他曾告诉我，让
    那么多，我是容易可疑性，他的愚蠢的骄傲
    承担了旧的老式已经开始工作，因此他
    出土的霉味手稿形式的书面证据，
    与英国殖民部干燥正式记录支持
    许多他的非凡叙事的突出特点。
    我不是说这个故事是真实的，因为我没有看到
    发生的事情，它描绘，但事实上，在告诉
    它给你，我已采取使用假名的主要
    字符相当充分的证据我自己的诚意
    认为它可能是真的。
    ===
    I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to
    me, or to any other. I may credit the seductive influence
    of an old vintage upon the narrator for the beginning of it,
    and my own skeptical incredulity during the days that followed
    for the balance of the strange tale.
    When my convivial host discovered that he had told me so
    much, and that I was prone to doubtfulness, his foolish pride
    assumed the task the old vintage had commenced, and so he
    unearthed written evidence in the form of musty manuscript,
    and dry official records of the British Colonial Office to support
    many of the salient features of his remarkable narrative.
    I do not say the story is true, for I did not witness the
    happenings which it portrays, but the fact that in the telling
    of it to you I have taken fictitious names for the principal
    characters quite sufficiently evidences the sincerity of my own
    belief that it MAY be true.